CSA Week 6

In the box this week:
potatoes
broccoli
cabbage
watermelon
onions
cherry bomb peppers
bell peppers
tomato
corn
japanese eggplant

Extras:
large baking zucchini
thai basil
sweet basil
oregano
tomatoes
 

Basil and Oregano. Look at the size of that!!

Thai Basil

Bruised, overripe and ugly tomatoes. Perfect for sauce!

Recipes:
Pesto
Caprese Salad
Zucchini bread
Cabbage Thoran
Thai Corn Soup
Soba Noodle Salad
Yellow Curry Eggplant
Apple Zucchini Muffins
Zucchini Pizza Casserole
Spicy Savory Sweet Watermelon Rind Pickles
Pickled Watermelon Rind Salad with Feta and Salami
Southwest One Pot Pasta

Well the box this week was super full - guess it's a good thing I had an extra day to cook it all because I needed it!!

Pesto galore! Both the sweet basil and the oregano pesto were made in the typical pesto way - nuts, oil, cheese, herbs. I didn't have pine nuts so I used walnuts, just as good and not as expensive. Amazing how so many herbs can pack down into something so small! I decided to put the pesto in ice cube trays then pop them in the freezer. The Thai basil was mixed with coconut oil and cashews. Looking at some recipes online AFTER I made the pesto, some people added fish sauce and sesame oil, which would be a nice addition. I may add that to what's left after making the soba noodle salad...

Here's my version of a Caprese salad - tomato, mozzarella and a pesto vinaigrette. Yum!

Zucchini bread. Different recipe than I have used before. We made these at my friend, Patty's house. We were very liberal with the add ins - cranberries, golden raisins, almonds, cherries, sunflower seeds, chocolate chips and Heath Toffee bits. Very tasty.

Cabbage Thoran. This is an Indian dish we made at Patty's house. She just had her cousin visit and had all fresh new spices for us to play with. It is a very quick dish - so the shredded cabbage is still somewhat crunchy. There's nice heat from the chiles and the coconut helps cool the heat some. Very good.

Now on to Thailand. Found this recipe for a corn soup without cream. Was disappointed to not be able to find Kaffir lime leaves but used lime zest as a replacement. Subtle heat and complex flavors in a short time.

This soba salad was something I made up on the fly. I knew I wanted to use the Thai basil pesto in a cold noodle salad, so then added some broccoli, grated carrot and sesame oil. It turned out better than I would have thought!

This yellow curry eggplant is a real winner. Simple to make with coconut milk and curry paste. Just throw in your ingredients and it's done pretty quick. Lots of flavor!!! The recipe calls for sweet potato but I substituted regular potatoes, since that is what I have the abundance of. Served over rice, it would be a great weeknight take out substitute.

These strusel topped apple zucchini muffins are sooo delicious. We used applesauce I canned last year in my first canning adventure (still delicious, by the way) and apples from the farmstand. Homemade at it's best!

Taste of Home has something here with this zucchini pizza casserole. It's really good and filling. It also uses a lot of zucchini, for when you have a lot! We used our homemade sauce for this, and that may be why it's soo good. I was quite surprised how much the sauce cooked down! We took half and put that in the oven to make tomato paste and the other half to make sauce. I think we got 3 dishes worth out of the batch - so one went into zucchini pizza casserole, one went to Patty and I took the last. Kinda sad how all that work went into so little...now I need to think of the perfect dish for that delicious sauce!! The tomato paste went into the ice cube trays and now in the freezer - you only use a few tablespoons at a time anyway...

More watermelon rind pickles! This is a sweet pickle, which I will have to decide what to do with. It is also much softer, since you boil the rinds before you pickle them. Probably would be good with roasted meat on a sandwich, or anytime you want a sweet pickle. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the salad I made with the other pickled watermelon rind...probably because I was so excited to eat it each time I made it that I dug in before getting the picture! Check out the recipe, it sounds weird, but it's really good.

The only thing left to make is the Southwest One Pot Pasta. I'm about to start on that for dinner. It will use of the last of the corn and I'll probably end up putting most of it in the freezer for later. Happy Labor Day everyone!